I believe no one in their sound mind would be inspired to be a professional photographer.

Be it a wedding photographer, Family Portrait Photographer, Newborn Photographer or Children Photographer…

You might say…  But… I LOOOOOVEEEE taking pictures…    yes, that’s that!

For many, myself included, started photography and enjoy the “possibility” of creating something… and we devote majority our free time with learning and learning and learning about photography. Some become well converse in “photography terms” and spitting out words like “stop”, “depth of field”, “shadow”, “mid-tone”, “light”, etc like how we breath air.

Our work being praise by the friends and family in online and off-line, etc… We feel that we are floating in the air… ya, that feel great!!!

Of course, the natural progression is GOING PRO…

RIGHT???

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Let me burst your bubble for one second. Going PRO isn’t a progression or the next level of acknowledgement of your work. Its like FALL in LOVE and MARRIAGE – *don’t get me wrong, I am a happilly married with 3 kids…  so read on please!!!

It was a wonderful feeling when you fall in love and everything seems “PERFECT”, nothing and its absolutely nothing that will hold us back… as time passes, the natural progression is Marriage… now, some might say, marriage is the end of LOVE… but I think otherwise…

now, here is the thing… you suddenly find yourself in REALITY!!!

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but i digress…

The reality of being a professional is this… much like a marriage life, you have to make things work… the keywords here “Make Things Work”

What I mean by that is, it is never JUST about YOU anymore… it is you, your other half, your family and your other half family… much like work, its you and your clients.

We always have to remember our purpose when we offer our service as a photographer to the world… photography is a finite things that you do and it is 10% of you do as professional photographer.

First, you find people who like your work:
Then, you find people who like your work, to talk to you:
Then, you find people who like your work, to talk to you, to be interested enough to consider booking you;
Then, you find people who like your work, to talk to you, to be interested enough to consider booking you; to actually agree on the price you charge;
Then, you find people who like your work, to talk to you, to be interested enough to consider booking you; to actually agree on the price you charge; to actual pay for a session;
Then, you find people who like your work, to talk to you, to be interested enough to consider booking you; to actually agree on the price you charge; to actual pay for a session; to make put in a date with you;
Then, you find people who like your work, to talk to you, to be interested enough to consider booking you; to actually agree on the price you charge; to actual pay for a session; to make put in a date with you; to prepare their family and travel to shoot location;
Then, you find people who like your work, to talk to you, to be interested enough to consider booking you; to actually agree on the price you charge; to actual pay for a session; to make put in a date with you; to prepare their family and travel to shoot location; to subject themselves to the shoot; etc, etc etc
Then, after all that… you need to make sure they are happy with the results… and you need to get them to order, then you need to get the order done for them as soon as possible to the way you promise them.

I am talking about 1 cycle… with 250-300 cycles a year and I had to do that again and again and again with as little deviation as possible between them and I am just like anyone else, the imperfect human being that has low and high in life.

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Furthermore, what you LOVE doing is photography but in order for you to do that 10% of what you love… you actually have to do 90% of things that offer you the 10%. Its crazy isn’t it?

But what keep a photographer, like myself, going back for more?

For sure, it isn’t just the monetary return, it isn’t the kick of doing things that you don’t want to do, it almost certain the LOVE for photography will prevail…?

One day down the line after years of working extremely hard… BOOOOMMM… you got an email saying “I HATE THE IMAGES”… It happen to me before many years ago… It wasn’t nice… if could floor you and put you right at the bottom of the deepest valley of this earth and finding yourself in a very dark, unappetizing place…

Some stays there and quit. Some climb and many falls back down, some reach the same point they were and make things better to reduce the likelihood of receiving the email that says “I HATE YOU”.

For those who start again from that point, the biggest things to bring them back to their LOVE of photography is their sense and purpose of doing what they are doing.

So what kept me safe and kept me wanting badly to go to the next shoot is what I feel is important…

The important of honoring people’s trust in selecting me to preserve their memories for them… This keep me going… other rewards are just icing to the cake.

 

With that in mind and oversubscribe as I always be, I find it difficult to convince myself to do less in preserving memories.

That’s how I feel about being a professional photographer specialising in preserving a little part of people’s memory.

Regards,

Hart Tan
Associate Master Photographer
www.tomato.sg
info@tomato.sg
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